Knives Out

Knives Out (2019)

38 mistakes

(19 votes)

Plot hole: The killer shows up at the scheduled appointment at 8 AM. They kill the idiot blackmailer with an overdose of morphine. Remember, that morphine that supposedly killed Thrombey in 10 minutes. Marta finds the blackmailer at 10 AM...alive, and does CPR on them, keeping them alive long enough for the ambulance to come and bring them to the hospital, even if in critical condition. So we went from "kills in 10 minutes, you can't even try to save him" to "after 2 hours, you are still hanging on"? (01:56:10)

Sammo

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Marta injected an absurdly large dose. A smaller overdose would not kill in 10 minutes.

I read that objection before. From 10 minutes to 2 hours there's quite a leap that the movie does not explain or address at all, if it were part of the plot they should have said why this difference, on something so time sensitive (of which they got the factual details wrong anyway). Even visually when you look at the dose injected to Harlan and the dose in the syringe for the murder, they do not look different. He even stabs her with the syringe. Which makes sense since he has no reason to leave her there with a small. Controlled overdose in her veins risking that she would be saved as it -almost - happens - it's amazing he got away with it to begin with because she is so dumb to show up for no reason in a derelict place without talking to her accomplice that passed her the toxi report, or anyone.Without a throwaway line from an investigator or anything of the sort ("but you injected her the wrong way, so she was still alive two hours after"), we are just left with an inconsistency.

Sammo

Suggested correction: You've assumed a hell of a lot! Marta said Thrombey was given a dose of 100 mg (instead 3) of Morphine and would die in 10 minutes unless given the antidote. You just asserted that "Thrombey would die in 10 minutes" as if it was fait accompli, while Thrombey didn't die of morphine overdoes at all! (He cut his own throat.) For all we know, Marta's 10-minute assessment was a worst-case-scenario assessment. Fran's age and physique, as well as Marta's CPR, helped negate the effect until the ambulance arrives. If the medics administered the antidote, it could have prolonged Fran's life. Finally, 2 hours is the time after which the viewer is informed of Fran's death, not her actual death time. Most importantly, this happens in the medical world all the time: A person who is supposed to die after 3 days lives for 16 years. There are case-by-case explanations for each one, but they baffle the medical examiners at first.

FleetCommand

Two hours is not my assumption or when the viewer is informed of her death; the killer gives the appointment to the victim at 8 AM and to Marta at 10 AM, so as I said, after 2 hours with 0 medical care on her she is still hanging on and with barely a little tap she is ready to dispense important clues. I go by what the movie says also about the 10 minutes overdose time. Of course if you tell me that baffling freak occurrences can happen all the time in medicine and that very precise statements from the movie don't matter because the character can just have gotten it wrong by over 10x and the movie does not acknowledge it at all, well, that's a very respectable opinion; mine is that fiction (a whodunnit, not a slasher flick with a killer surviving multiple gunshots and the like) is not reality and it should respond to higher standards than "I guess she was still alive somehow."

Sammo

I re-watched the movie to verify that Fran was given an appointment at 8 AM. I discovered something new: The bottle that was injected to Fran contained only 5 mg of Morphine. That's 1/20th of what was "supposedly" given to Thrombey Sr. So, yeah, 10x is OK. In fact, 20x is OK.

FleetCommand

No, no; it contains 5 mg of morphine PER ml, it's the concentration, not the total. Go back to the scene when Marta "messes up", the vials are the exact same as the one that Ransom injects (obviously, since they come from Marta's bag after all). It's new for you but I covered that already in the Factual Error about it. It's something that piles upon a previous mistake. She did not give him 100 mg of morphine because it would have emptied the vial (which is more than half full) and because a full vial of ketorlac would have killed Trombe regardless, at that concentration! The movie gets both the props and the medical facts wrong (100 mg of morphine does not even kill most patients, Harlan would have not died in 10 minutes especially since he takes safely big doses of toradol and morphine), but nothing - in the script - says that Marta or Ransom got basic medical facts wrong.

Sammo

Okay! It seems mistake after mistake is piling up. Now, it appears Fran lived 4 hours, during 2 of which she was unattended. Plus, 100 mg of Morphine from a 5 mg/ml vial amounts to 20 ml of liquid. Well, now, everything you say makes sense... or at least most of the things. On the whole, I think it was a complicated situation.

FleetCommand

Continuity mistake: There's a clear mix-up in editing during the car chase. Marta checks her phone twice for Blanc's calls as she tries to get away from the police. The first time the phone signals 9:36 AM, the second time 9:34 AM. (01:31:50)

Sammo

Factual error: Opening the blank envelope, Marta finds the fragment of the toxicology report. It is signed "Office of the chief medical examiner, Norfolk County, Massachusetts." But then it writes also the address of said office, which is in Marlborough. Marlborough is also the city when Marta resides, and where the lawyers' letters we see come from. But Marlborough is also a city in the Middlesex county, not Norfolk. (01:28:25)

Sammo

Factual error: The damning vials of medication are in close-ups. It is printed on the label that we're talking about 20 ml vials. The morphine vial is 5 mg/ml. When Marta says that she gave Harlan 100 mg of drug she is then wrong; unless she administered the full vial. The two vials have in fact different concentrations: the Ketorolac is in a 30 mg/ml solution, so Marta would have administered 600 mg of ketorolac tromethamine, not 100. The maximum dose for a geriatric patient is 60 mg per day; even the fact that she'd administer it in IV for days for just a pulled shoulder is definitely overdoing it anyway - and she puts even morphine on top of that. (00:36:00 - 01:49:00)

Sammo

Factual error: The drug in Marta's bag is incorrectly labeled as Ketorlac, when it's Ketorolac, with an extra O. It's the name of the molecule, not a brand name that could have been altered for legal reasons - and they mention the commercial name just minutes later during questioning, with no alteration. (00:36:00 - 01:49:00)

Sammo

Continuity mistake: Benoit Blanc caught Marta eavesdropping through the stained glass and is doing now "some pokin'." She answers his questions with her arms straight, and listens to him with her arms folded. (00:23:40)

Sammo

Continuity mistake: When Fran first takes the breakfast tray up the stairs, the mug of coffee on the tray is brimming. When she discovers Mr. Thrombey dead, the mug is mostly empty. (00:01:30 - 00:02:11)

FleetCommand

Continuity mistake: The lawyer arrives at the mansion and gives the reading of the will at roughly 10:30 am (it's morning, he says he'll be ready "in 10 minutes" and a few minutes after you can see on the phone Jamie Lee Curtis' character holds in hand that it's 10:16). Marta gets immediately stormed by the angry mob of scorned relatives and escapes with Ransom, who drives her to a little roadside inn. It's not implied that they drove hours, but let's just assume it's noon or even past noon (which already seems a lot). Ransom feeds her beans, and Marta is forced by her odd gag reflex to spill the metaphorical ones. When she has just finished telling him how the "suicide" went... it's pitch dark outside, and at the mansion. (01:02:30)

Sammo

Continuity mistake: After walking in the muddy path, Marta is greeted by very affectionate dogs. Daniel Craig approaches the dogs and the kneeling Ana de Armas with just his left hand in his pocket. Close-up, and he has both hands in his pockets all of a sudden. Return to the first wider angle and Craig's right hand is out of the pocket just as before. (00:58:10)

Sammo

Continuity mistake: When Marta Cabrera and Ransom Drysdale are at the diner the first four times she has three beers in front of her. The fifth cut to her there are four beers in front of her. The sixth cut to her there are three beers again. (01:18:03 - 01:18:27)

thetaz00

Visible crew/equipment: While Blanc talks to Marta about how long he has known her to be involved in the case and that he has an opinion on whether she should help the family, a person (most likely a crew member) leaves the house in a stooped position, as all the other inhabitants should have left it by now. (02:04:19)

Visible crew/equipment: Marta and the detective are driving to the 1209 location, and he is talking. During this entire scene, the reflection of the camera is visible on the left side of the glass.

manthabeat

Other mistake: During the revelation of the second death, when the killer opens the toxicology report they just retrieved, the date is revealed; it says it was issued on 09/27/2018. But the events of the movie happen in November (it's Sunday 18th Nov when Marta wakes up with all the reporters at her door). It should also be noted that when a close-up of the report was shown earlier (when Ransom was looking at the anonymous letter brought by Marta) that copy had a big stamp in a corner saying 11-17-18, that in this copy is totally absent. (01:56:55)

Sammo

Continuity mistake: During the denouement Marta asks "So why did she send it to me?", and Benoit Blanc replies with his right hand in mid-air - but it's in his pocket at the beginning of the next shot. (01:54:30)

Sammo

Continuity mistake: Marta recalls in her head the facts of the fateful night during Blanc's coin flip. Harlan sits down in the attic room and grabs the Go pieces from the bag. He places the bag on the table when she tells him to take the "goddamn medicine and go to bed", but it is back in his lap at the cut, and on the table again at the next cut, midsentence. (00:32:50)

Sammo

Other mistake: Marta sinks her white shoes in the mud to cover her tracks. We see that the shoes are, as they should be, all dirty to the sole and welt. They are clean again in the following scene though (on a sidenote, the shoes have been cleaned after the murder then, and she or her mom missed the bloodstain - it's very much possible, it just adds a little implausibility). (00:57:20)

Sammo

Continuity mistake: Walking outside of the shack with the recording equipment, Marta is rubbing the tape with the magnet. Notice the position of her hand when she is walking - correctly, she is holding the magnet end against the cassette. The close-up that reveals the trick to the audience though, starts with her holding it the opposite way. (There is technically time for her to flip it around in her hand in the couple seconds when her hand is not on camera, but we see her put her hand by her side to conceal the magnet's presence, and then how she holds it tightly against the same spot on the coat; switching the side the magnet is facing would require a deliberate movement with no sense or purpose). (00:57:00)

Sammo

Continuity mistake: The quantity of barf on the killer's face varies between shots - in particular they have a big reddish bit on a cheek that disappears in the dramatic slo-mo side view when they push Marta down, weapon in hand. (02:00:00)

Sammo

Visible crew/equipment: During the car chase, Marta pulls her car into a dead end and the camera moves up to the window. The top of the camera operator's head is visible in the reflection. Later in the same shot, the camera is visible in the glass left of screen.

manthabeat

Benoit Blanc: I suspect foul play. I have eliminated no suspects.

More quotes from Knives Out
More trivia for Knives Out

Question: In the flashbacks of Ransom storming out, it's different each time. The first time his Grandma speaks, the second time she's silent, and the third time she's holding cake, when she wasn't the other times. The flashbacks we see don't contradict each other, they're not really portrayed as coming from unreliable narrators, they're generally an honest portrayal of what happens, even when what they're telling the police isn't what we see happen. So why these minor, certainly deliberate, differences? Far as I'm aware it's the only time it happens too, not like there are lots of moments like this.

Jon Sandys

Chosen answer: She is holding cake all 3 times, actually, so the only difference is that the first time she speaks. It can be a case of unreliable narrator, but I'd write it down as a mistake (deliberate, probably, as the phrase is important for the plot and they didn't want to hammer it in), since as you said, the other times even when they tell things to the police in a different way from what happened, the details tend to stay consistent, except for parts that are obviously made up, such as who is putting down the birthday cake for Harlan Thrombey therefore appearing subservient and not as close (when Richard tells the story, it's Walt and his wife, when Walt tells the story it is Richard and his wife).

Sammo

Answer: Each time, it is being described by a different person. Maybe not all heard her speak.

More questions & answers from Knives Out

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